The Prisoner Of Chillon Poem Rhyme Scheme

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George Gordon Byron

The Prisoner Of Chillon Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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My hair is grey but not with years	A
Nor grew it white	B
In a single night	B
As men's have grown from sudden fears	A
My limbs are bow'd though not with toil	C
But rusted with a vile repose	D
For they have been a dungeon's spoil	C
And mine has been the fate of those	D
To whom the goodly earth and air	E
Are bann'd and barr'd forbidden fare	E
But this was for my father's faith	F
I suffer'd chains and courted death	G
That father perish'd at the stake	H
For tenets he would not forsake	H
And for the same his lineal race	I
In darkness found a dwelling place	I
We were seven who now are one	J
Six in youth and one in age	K
Finish'd as they had begun	J
Proud of Persecution's rage	K
One in fire and two in field	L
Their belief with blood have seal'd	L
Dying as their father died	M
For the God their foes denied	M
Three were in a dungeon cast	N
Of whom this wreck is left the last	N
	-
There are seven pillars of Gothic mould	O
In Chillon's dungeons deep and old	O
There are seven columns massy and grey	P
Dim with a dull imprison'd ray	P
A sunbeam which hath lost its way	P
And through the crevice and the cleft	Q
Of the thick wall is fallen and left	Q
Creeping o'er the floor so damp	R
Like a marsh's meteor lamp	R
And in each pillar there is a ring	S
And in each ring there is a chain	T
That iron is a cankering thing	S
For in these limbs its teeth remain	T
With marks that will not wear away	P
Till I have done with this new day	P
Which now is painful to these eyes	U
Which have not seen the sun so rise	U
For years I cannot count them o'er	V
I lost their long and heavy score	W
When my last brother droop'd and died	M
And I lay living by his side	M
	-
They chain'd us each to a column stone	X
And we were three yet each alone	X
We could not move a single pace	I
We could not see each other's face	I
But with that pale and livid light	B
That made us strangers in our sight	B
And thus together yet apart	Y
Fetter'd in hand but join'd in heart	Y
'Twas still some solace in the dearth	Z
Of the pure elements of earth	Z
To hearken to each other's speech	A2
And each turn comforter to each	A2
With some new hope or legend old	O
Or song heroically bold	O
But even these at length grew cold	O
Our voices took a dreary tone	X
An echo of the dungeon stone	X
A grating sound not full and free	B2
As they of yore were wont to be	B2
It might be fancy but to me	B2
They never sounded like our own	X
	-
I was the eldest of the three	B2
And to uphold and cheer the rest	C2
I ought to do and did my best	C2
And each did well in his degree	B2
The youngest whom my father loved	D2
Because our mother's brow was given	J
To him with eyes as blue as heaven	J
For him my soul was sorely moved	E2
And truly might it be distress'd	C2
To see such bird in such a nest	C2
For he was beautiful as day	P
When day was beautiful to me	B2
As to young eagles being free	B2
A polar day which will not see	B2
A sunset till its summer's gone	F2
Its sleepless summer of long light	B
The snow clad offspring of the sun	J
And thus he was as pure and bright	B
And in his natural spirit gay	P
With tears for nought but others' ills	G2
And then they flow'd like mountain rills	G2
Unless he could assuage the woe	H2
Which he abhorr'd to view below	H2
	-
The other was as pure of mind	I2
But form'd to combat with his kind	I2
Strong in his frame and of a mood	J2
Which 'gainst the world in war had stood	K2
And perish'd in the foremost rank	L2
With joy but not in chains to pine	M2
His spirit wither'd with their clank	L2
I saw it silently decline	M2
And so perchance in sooth did mine	M2
But yet I forced it on to cheer	N2
Those relics of a home so dear	N2
He was a hunter of the hills	G2
Had followed there the deer and wolf	O2
To him this dungeon was a gulf	P2
And fetter'd feet the worst of ills	G2
	-
Lake Leman lies by Chillon's walls	G2
A thousand feet in depth below	H2
Its massy waters meet and flow	H2
Thus much the fathom line was sent	Q2
From Chillon's snow white battlement	R2
Which round about the wave inthralls	G2
A double dungeon wall and wave	S2
Have made and like a living grave	S2
Below the surface of the lake	H
The dark vault lies wherein we lay	P
We heard it ripple night and day	P
Sounding o'er our heads it knock'd	T2
And I have felt the winter's spray	P
Wash through the bars when winds were high	U2
And wanton in the happy sky	U2
And then the very rock hath rock'd	T2
And I have felt it shake unshock'd	T2
Because I could have smiled to see	G2
The death that would have set me free	G2
	-
I said my nearer brother pined	T2
I said his mighty heart declined	T2
He loathed and put away his food	T2
It was not that 'twas coarse and rude	T2
For we were used to hunter's fare	E
And for the like had little care	E
The milk drawn from the mountain goat	T2
Was changed for water from the moat	T2
Our bread was such as captives' tears	G2
Have moisten'd many a thousand years	G2
Since man first pent his fellow men	V2
Like brutes within an iron den	V2
But what were these to us or him	W2
These wasted not his heart or limb	W2
My brother's soul was of that mould	T2
Which in a palace had grown cold	T2
Had his free breathing been denied	T2
The range of the steep mountain's side	T2
But why delay the truth he died	T2
I saw and could not hold his head	T2
Nor reach his dying hand nor dead	T2
Though hard I strove but strove in vain	T
To rend and gnash my bonds in twain	T
He died and they unlock'd his chain	T
And scoop'd for him a shallow grave	S2
Even from the cold earth of our cave	S2
I begg'd them as a boon to lay	P
His corse in dust whereon the day	P
Might shine it was a foolish thought	T2
But then within my brain it wrought	T2
That even in death his freeborn breast	T2
In such a dungeon could not rest	T2
I might have spared my idle prayer	E
They coldly laugh'd and laid him there	E
The flat and turfless earth above	X2
The being we so much did love	X2
His empty chain above it leant	T2
Such Murder's fitting monument	T2
	-
But he the favourite and the flower	V
Most cherish'd since his natal hour	V
His mother's image in fair face	G2
The infant love of all his race	G2
His martyr'd father's dearest thought	T2
My latest care for whom I sought	T2
To hoard my life that his might be	G2
Less wretched now and one day free	G2
He too who yet had held untired	T2
A spirit natural or inspired	T2
He too was struck and day by day	T2
Was wither'd on the stalk away	T2
Oh God it is a fearful thing	S
To see the human soul take wing	S
In any shape in any mood	T2
I've seen it rushing forth in blood	T2
I've seen it on the breaking ocean	J
Strive with a swoln convulsive motion	J
I've seen the sick and ghastly bed	T2
Of Sin delirious with its dread	T2
But these were horrors this was woe	H2
Unmix'd with such but sure and slow	H2
He faded and so calm and meek	Y2
So softly worn so sweetly weak	Y2
So tearless yet so tender kind	T2
And grieved for those he left behind	T2
With all the while a cheek whose bloom	Z2
Was as a mockery of the tomb	Z2
Whose tints as gently sunk away	T2
As a departing rainbow's ray	T2
An eye of most transparent light	T2
That almost made the dungeon bright	T2
And not a word of murmur not	T2
A groan o'er his untimely lot	T2
A little talk of better days	G2
A little hope my own to raise	G2
For I was sunk in silence lost	T2
In this last loss of all the most	T2
And then the sighs he would suppress	G2
Of fainting Nature's feebleness	G2
More slowly drawn grew less and less	G2
I listen'd but I could not hear	A3
I call'd for I was wild with fear	N2
I knew 'twas hopeless but my dread	T2
Would not be thus admonish d	T2
I call'd and thought I heard a sound	T2
I burst my chain with one str	N2